Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Page: 130

Babbar, the sun god of Sippar, whose Semitic name was Shamash,
must have been credited with the early successes of the Amorites,
who became domiciled under his care, and it was possibly on that
account that the ruling family subsequently devoted so much
attention to his worship in Merodach's city of Babylon, where a
sun temple was erected, and Shamash received devout recognition
as an abstract
deity of righteousness and law, who reflected the ideals of well
organized and firmly governed communities.

The first Amoritic king was Sumu-abum, but little is known
regarding him except that he reigned at Sippar. He was succeeded
by Sumu-la-ilu, a deified monarch, who moved from Sippar to
Babylon, the great wall of which he either repaired or entirely
reconstructed in his fifth year. With these two monarchs began
the brilliant Hammurabi, or First Dynasty of Babylonia, which
endured for three centuries. Except Sumu-abum, who seems to stand
alone, all its kings belonged to the same family, and son
succeeded father in unbroken succession.

Sumu-la-ilu was evidently a great general and conqueror of the
type of Thothmes III of Egypt. His empire, it is believed,
included the rising city states of Assyria, and extended
southward as far as ancient Lagash.

Of special interest on religious as well as political grounds
was his association with Kish. That city had become the
stronghold of a rival family of Amoritic kings, some of whom were
powerful enough to assert their independence. They formed the
Third Dynasty of Kish. The local god was Zamama, the Tammuz-like
deity, who, like Nin-Girsu of Lagash, was subsequently identified
with Merodach of Babylon. But prominence was also given to the
moon god Nannar, to whom a temple had been erected, a fact which
suggests that sun worship was not more pronounced among the
Semites than the Arabians, and may not, indeed, have been of
Semitic origin at all. Perhaps the lunar temple was a relic of
the influential Dynasty of Ur.

Sumu-la-ilu attacked and captured Kish, but did not slay
Bunutakhtunila, its king, who became his vassal. Under the
overlordship of Sumu-la-ilu, the next ruler of Kish, whose name was
Immerum, gave prominence to the public worship of Shamash.
Politics and religion went evidently hand in hand.

Sumu-la-ilu strengthened the defences of Sippar, restored the
wall and temple of Cuthah, and promoted the worship of Merodach
and his consort Zerpanitum at
Babylon. He was undoubtedly one of the forceful personalities of
his dynasty. His son, Zabium, had a short but successful reign,
and appears to have continued the policy of his father in
consolidating the power of Babylon and securing the allegiance of
subject cities. He enlarged Merodach's temple, E-sagila, restored
the Kish temple of Zamama, and placed a golden image of himself
in the temple of the sun god at Sippar. Apil-Sin, his son,
surrounded Babylon with a new wall, erected a temple to Ishtar,
and presented a throne of gold and silver to Shamash in that
city, while he also strengthened Borsippa, renewed Nergal's
temple at Cuthah, and dug canals.